Freedom of expression and copyright in the Internet – The new realities of a cyberspace inhabited by copycats

Posted on January 24, 2014 by artgrant

Printing press – Wikipedia

In an earlier post, “Constitutional protection of a collective exercise of freedom of expression: Alberta v UFWA”, I commented on how the Supreme Court of Canada was coming around to understanding the fundamental importance of the exercise of freedom of expression by a collectivity. I also noted that this shift could ultimately have wide-reaching ramifications in the Internet Age.

This post today will be the first instalment of several posts on freedom of expression and the Internet. But let me start by saying that the genie is now out of the bottle and it will not be going back.

Continue reading →

New Name – Constitutionally Canadian

Posted on January 17, 2014 by artgrant

When I started up this blog, I had searched URL’s and found that “constitutionally-yours.com” was available, I liked the name and so I took it. After I had been doing this blog for about 6 weeks, I realized that there had been (or still is) another blog, run out of the United States under the same name “Constitutionally Yours”. It had not seen activity for a while but I thought, “Why create confusion?” So I have changed this blog to “Constitutionally Canadian”. The URL will be http://www.constitutionalcanadian.com. I look forward to continuing under this new moniker.

I still remain though

Yours constitutionally

Arthur Grant

PS Though I am sure everyone knows, yesterday, the Supreme Court of Canada granted leave to appeal in Carter v. Attorney General for British Columbia, the case on physician assisted suicide.

The Supreme Court’s Exercise in Introspection

Posted on January 14, 2014 by artgrant

This photo is from a file from the Wikimedia Commons.

On Wednesday, January 15, 2014, the Supreme Court of Canada is undertaking a rather interesting exercise. The Supreme Court justices will be hearing arguments from the Attorneys General of Canada, Quebec and Ontario as well as from certain intervenors in the Reference re Sections 5 and 6 of the Supreme Court Act which will determine whether Mr. Justice Marc Nadon has been properly appointed to sit amongst them.
Continue reading →

A New Year: What Major Constitutional Issues Might Canada Face in 2014?

Posted on January 10, 2014 by artgrant

As we get back into the saddle after the holiday season, I thought that it might be fun to think about what might be some of the constitutional issues that Canada might face in 2014. Of course, like all crystal globe seers, I am almost certain to be wrong on some if not most of them. But it will be interesting to look back at this short list at the end of 2014 and see just how wrong I was. So, this is not supposed to be exhaustive but here are just a few of the issues that I think Canada will be dealing with in the year to come.

Continue reading →